5 Things We Learned About Google on Earnings Call

Google-parent Alphabet’s revenue rose 24 percent year-over-year, to $32.32 billion, exceeding expectations. Net revenue also beat expectations, at $25.9 billion. And because of recent tax legislation in the last quarter, the company faced a net loss of $3.02 billion.

But to better illustrate those metrics and potential growth areas for the company, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet and Google CFO Ruth Porat sprinkled in some more tangible numbers about the company’s progress over the last quarter of 2017 and the year overall.

The figures they shared reveal where the company is headed and how its investments in its “three biggest bets,” — hardware, cloud and YouTube — have manifested themselves.

1. Google Assistant is now available on more than 400 million devices.
From the Google Home speaker to smartphones, tablets, headphones, televisions and even 400 different car models, the Google Assistant is finding its way into more and more devices.

Google has sold “tens of millions” of Google devices for the home over the past year, including the Google Home, Mini, Max and Chromecast.

“Our AI research and innovation leads the world,” Pichai said during Thursday’s earnings call. “Our mission to better organize the world’s information has been transformed by these technologies, with our search products and the Google Assistant at the heart.”

Pichai also noted that “There was a lot of excitement around the Google Assistant at CES from partners and consumers.” (That was thanks in part to the company’s aggressive advertising efforts in Las Vegas.)

2. People rang in the new year with 3 billion Google Photos.
“One area that’s really benefiting from our advancements in AI is photography,” Pichai said during Thursday’s call.

He noted that the Pixel 2 phone employs machine learning and video stabilization to up the ante on smartphone video standards.

He also shared a crazy stat about Google Photos: More than 3 billion photos and videos were uploaded to Google Photos on New Year’s Eve alone.

3. Google Cloud brings in $1 billion per quarter.
“Google Cloud, which includes Google Cloud platform and G suite, has reached meaningful scale,” Pichai said. “And I’m excited to share today that it’s already a billion-dollar-per-quarter business. In fact, we believe that Google Cloud platform, based on publicly reported data for the 12 months ending December 2017, is the fastest-growing major public cloud provider in the world.”